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Preliminary Report on NgNOG 2006 Workshop and Conference

We [the Nigeria ICT Forum, the Convenors of the Nigerian Network Operators Group (NgNOG) and the Organizing Committee for the event] are happy to announce the successful conclusion of the first edition of the annual Nigerian Network Operators Group (NgNOG) Workshop on Internet Technology and Conference on Fostering a National Research and Education Network (NREN), hosted by the University of Jos 20061120-25.

This event built upon the Pre-NgNOG Workshop that was successfully deployed at the University of Ibadan in July, 2006.

Fifty-six (56) participants were trained in the three tracks of the NgNOG 2006 workshop, and the vast majority of them are academic network operators, with half of all delegates being staff of the six Forum member institutions. Tutorial presentations were made on VoIP, Power Planning, Management of Spam and Viruses among others topics. Seven Special Interest Groups (SIGs) evolved out of the workshop, and began interactions on their respective areas of interest in time to make inputs into the Conference.

Ninety (90) persons participated in the Conference, and considered reports of the SIGs and the six lead papers that were presented mostly by private sector firms.

We (the Board of the Nigeria ICT Forum of Partnership Institutions, NgNOG Convenors and Organizers as well as all the instructors, presenters, delegates and our supporters) are proud to record Africa’s first -and highly successful- attempt to customize and domesticate the annual AfNOG training program while retaining all its flavours, as a means of accelerating sustainable ICT capacity-building and building a viable networking community.

With very great appreciation to the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa and particularly to our donors (the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the MacArthur Foundation); to the Network Start up Resource Centre and the University of Oregon in the USA, who donated and shipped eight jumbo boxes containing all the books we needed for the delegates and their instututional libraries and the equipment required for such a challenging undertaking; to the Internet Society (ISOC) and the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) and their many ghosts from all over the world, who developed the curriculum, trained our trainers and inspired us over the years; to our all-Nigerian delegates, volunteer team of instructors and presenters who came from all over the country (and as far a field as Lagos, Aba, and Port Harcourt; Abuja, Sokoto and Yola); to our joint AfNOG Abuja LOC, NgNOG LOC and UniJos LOC and student interns who formed a truly formidable Organizing Committee; to our local host, Forum institutions, other institutions and agencies, as well as to the Nigerian private sector and firms. It is impossible to mention everyone in this summary, but a full list of supporters and contributors will be published in due course.

A proud thank you to the University of Jos, and to the people of Jos and Plateau State: they not only contributed to, and hosted NgNOG 2006, but also maintained peace and calm during the entire two weeks of on-site preparation and activity, despite great media-generated political uncertainty about the impeachment and purported arrest of the State's Executive Governor. Not a single untoward incidence happened during our stay in Jos.